Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

 One of these days I promise to try and start posting regularly again.  It's been a busy spring and beginning of summer for me and L.  Lots of stuff happening in these parts.  Since I was last posting on a frequent basis, I went to Miami for Nolly's bachelorette party (POST RING PASS!!!  Yes, we are awesome and we did a ring pass for her since all the attendees were Pi Phis),

L and I spent his birthday weekend in NYC (I'm horrible and didn't take any pics), Nolly and Flad got married in Houston,

my sister and brother-in-law came and visited us for a long weekend (there are no post-worthy pics), L and I went to Austin for the 4th of July (if I can muster it, I'll recap the travel misadventures in a post... it was unbelievably ridiculous... but of course I have zero pics from any of it - do we see a recurring theme here?), and we just got back from HSG's wedding in Mexico.

We're quite the globetrotters this year!

With the decision to stay here and take the new job in place, L and I both agreed in the end that a move is in order.  We've spent a lot of time trying to decide whether or not it would be better to continue renting or to buy... the idea of owning is both appealing and daunting.  Part of the agreement to stay included negotiating a dog clause.  We are now in agreement that we WILL be getting a dog soon, although probably not until after we move. Once that decision was made, we started pondering where exactly we might want to live.  The same weekend we had to decide whether to stay in VA or go back to Texas, we had breakfast on Sunday morning and run some errands.  On the way home, we randomly popped into a condo building we've seen many times while eating at a place that occupies space in the first floor of one of the buildings.  The building is new construction and we knew they were selling different floor plans, so we went in to get more information.  As it turned out, they had an open house going on that day so we were able to walk through the building and see all the different floor plans that were still available.  We immediately were drawn to three of them, but at the time, we still didn't know if we were going to stay in Virginia or move back to Texas.  Long story short, we did research on previous units sold in the building, went to some open houses for other properties, checked into some apartment buildings, and ultimately we decided we think we're ready to buy.  Then we had to figure out what we could afford to buy, so once we knew that, we decided which place we wanted and got the ball rolling.  We submitted our offer about two weeks ago and it was accepted (woo hoo!!!).  We close on September 14 and move the following day.

After living in our current house with its very small one bathroom and very small galley kitchen, I cannot say it enough how excited I am about our new place!  You better believe it has an open floor plan with a kitchen that's about twice the size of our current one and TWO full bathrooms (the master bathroom is big enough to have a small party in and we'll have our own sinks.  You have no idea how amazing this is since we can't both look in the mirror at the same time in our current place).  I'll post pictures at some point, but for the moment, I don't want to jinx anything.

Stay, stay, stay, stay for a while

Sooooooo... I've been silent for a while because we've been figuring out our lives.  L was unexpectedly approached by a recruiter back in April and he decided to hear what she had to say.  That ended up leading to a job offer in mid-June, so we had to decide if we wanted to stick with our original plan to move back to Austin sometime this fall or next spring or if we should stay here so he could take the new job.  He was informed on a Monday that the company was preparing an offer for him and the package came through on Friday afternoon.  We hoped and prayed all week that it either be low enough to where it would be easy to pass on or that it would be high enough to be an obvious "yes" response.  Of course, the offer was right in between, so we spent an entire weekend agonizing over whether or not L should take the job.  It was definitely one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my life and certainly one of (if not the) hardest decisions L and I have made in our marriage.  Until then, I didn't realize how attached I'd become to the idea of moving home to Texas.  We literally didn't do anything that entire weekend except spend time together working on a puzzle while talking through the pros and cons of both staying and moving.  By late Sunday night, I told L that in my heart, I felt like he should take the new job.  It was too good of an opportunity for him and financially it would do a lot for the two of us.  L wasn't convinced yet, so he stayed up after I went to bed thinking through both options.  He still wasn't sure what he was going to say when I left for work the next morning, but I left feeling good knowing that he knew I'd be okay with whatever he decided.  The end of the story is that he had some kind of epiphany during his drive to work and decided that he needed to take the job offer.  So he did, and now we know we'll be here a while longer. 

I can't say enough that this was definitely a bittersweet decision.  It's a great opportunity for L, and by proxy, the two of us.  But it's hard to let go of, or at least defer, a dream you both mutually share.  L is really excited about the new job.  It's a big promotion for him and he likes the people at his new company.  They have some exciting long-term goals for him, which is great.  The hard part is that even though we have an idea of how much longer we'd like to be here, we're not sure how exactly we'll finagle a move back.  The new job is great for L, but it will also make it much more challenging for him to find a new job at the same level if he ends up leaving this one whenever we decide to move back.  But all that aside, we both feel at peace with our decision now.  L started the new job last week and it is going well so far.  It was really hard for him to leave his old position, particularly his boss.  His now-former boss has just been such a wonderful mentor to L for so many years.  L wouldn't have been in the position to even be offered the new job if it weren't for his former boss. 

So that's the big change that we used to usher in summer.  With this under our belts, we are now looking to start fresh in a new place.  More to come on that later when we officially know where we'll be, but keep your fingers crossed for us that we'll get the details on that ironed out this week! 

Reading Rainbow

I just had such a great and exhausting weekend, like the kind that's so packed full of stuff that you need a day off to recover from it.  It's not going to sound nearly as full in my retelling, but it felt non-stop to me.

L and I stayed in on Friday and layed low.  I knew I had to be up at 7:20 on Saturday morning because I was volunteering at the National Book Festival via JLW.  Apparently at some point on Friday night, L mentioned that he had to go in to work on Saturday morning.  I have no recollection of this.  This is just the latest in a series of events where he tells me something when I am completely awake and having a conversation with him and I end up with absolutely no memory of that entire part of the discussion. We are currently in an ongoing debate about whether I am becoming incredibly forgetful (which seems unlikely from my vantage point because have you met me?  I have a memory that tends to stun some people) or if he's having a one-sided conversation in his head.  So far, neither of us is budging on our stances.  This could all be a horridly clever joke in which L makes me believe over a span of several years that I am beginning to lose my mind at the mild age of 30.  Except that is so mean and unkind.  I'm all for jokes and cleverness and building to a punchline, but this would be excessive.  Thoughts?  Anyone out there know that maybe I really am only amazing at remembering some things and horribly forgetful with others?  Seriously, I'd like to know.  Right now I'm hearing crickets from the lack of responses. (Seriously, as I type this, the neighborhood crickets are gathering on my front porch and chirping away.  Apparently it's high cricket mating season in these parts.)

BACK TO THE POINT.  So yeah, I was up and at it at the early out of 7:20 on Saturday morning.  I debated about whether to shower, so as to be so fresh and so clean, clean, but then I did a quick weather check and opened the front door and realized that 100% humidity = not awesome for the hair, even if it was going to be under a JL hat.  Also, I'm smart enough to know that this situation would only create an extreme hat hair sitch that would require a post-volunteering shower, so instead I just dolled myself up as best as possible, threw on my NBF staff t-shirt and sassiest khaki pants (is there such a thing?), and off I went to the Metro.  I'm thrilled to say I definitely saw a girl in the midst of a ride of shame.  So far, the one great thing about having to get up early on weekends for JL activities is that EVERY TIME, I've seen someone shame riding home on the Metro.  Hilarious.  The juxtaposition of all the volunteers in our staff shirts and all the families with their small children heading off to a wholesome family event and this lovely young lady with her hair pulled back in a messy pony tail and wearing a black, lacy dress with a man's jacket of sorts over it just makes onlookers bite their lips in an attempt to not smile/laugh at the poor girl.  Yes, I was one of the onlookers.  I wanted to take a pic but I just couldn't do it.  Going home at 8:30 a.m. wearing a dress from the night before with a dude's long-sleeved shirt/jacket and messy hair and make up while you sit next to families who are just starting their days has to be mortifying.

I was excited for the National Book Festival because I missed it last year.  (If you have to miss an event you really want to go to, I highly recommend going with 3 of your closest friends to Las Vegas.  Totally worth it.)  A little background info for you: NBF was started by Laura Bush during #43's first year in office.  She also started the Texas Book Festival and NBF is based off the success of TBF.  Having never attended TBF or NBF before, I had no idea what to expect, but based on the info shared in our volunteer training last Wednesday night, I knew it was going to be a pretty sizable event.  It's held on the Mall and spans seven blocks.

I rolled in on Saturday and checked in and went to my assigned tent, the Pavilion of States.  Each state and territory sent representatives to the festival to promote literacy and reading.  Because I had the first shift of the day, I was able to choose which state's table I wanted to work at.  I chose Texas. Obvi.  The Texas table:

Sorry you can't actually see the table.  We were very popular because we were giving out a lot of free stuff, and people freak out about free stuff.  To the parents who wanted the bulk packages of bookmarks (100 in each package): what exactly does your one seven-year-old need 100 identical bookmarks for?  Those are going to get thrown in the trash.  Stop being quite so greedy and just take a handful of the single ones and let the teachers and librarians take the bulk packages.  Seriously.  Because one or two bookmarks might be cool to your child or nephew or grandchild.  One hundred of the exact same one over and over again is overwhelming and boring.  Our nextdoor neighbor was Guam.  They were pretty cool. 

I spent the morning passing out bookmarks, posters, maps, brochures, encouraging teachers and librarians (of which there were hundreds) to enter a drawing for children's books, and stamping maps for kids as part of a game sponsored by the festival where each participant got a blank map of all the states and territories and was supposed to visit each state/territory's table and receive a stamp or sticker in the state's shape on the map.  Once the map was filled in, the child received some sort of prize.  No idea what it was, but it was fun stamping the maps.  We had 3 Texas stamps: a mockingbird, a bluebonnet, and I can't remember what the other one was because we misplaced it.  Or someone stole it off the table.  Either one.  Honestly it's a toss up.  Anyway, for you Texans out there, you might notice a theme with the two stamps I can remember: state symbols (mockingbird = Texas state bird, bluebonnet = Texas state flower).  I opted to use the mockingbird stamp because it was bigger, the ink was darker, and it was just more fun.  What I learned from this is that most people are idiots when it comes to birds.  These same people think they are brilliant.  99% of the people whose maps I stamped thought it was a roadrunner.  I found this annoying.  New Mexico's bird is the roadrunner.  Yes, we have roadrunners in Texas.  We also have a gazillion other species.  It doesn't mean the stamp is a roadrunner.  That would be so random.  I may or may not have almost gotten in an argument with a lady about this.  I don't even know why she was getting the map stamped in the first place; it was an activity for children.  Regardless, this otherwise nice-looking lady insisted I was incorrect, despite my explanation that I was from Texas; the state bird is a mockingbird; mockingbirds have feet, just like roadrunners (the bird on the stamp was standing, not in flight); and that the stamps were symbols of Texas.  We seriously went back and forth for a full minute, which was a long time given the number of people that visited our table.  Most people stayed for 20 seconds or less.  FYI, this is a roadrunner:

via CardinalPhoto.com

And this is a mockingbird:

via Flickr

I suppose it's the long tails, feathers, beaks, heads, and dual feet and wings that got her.  We eventually agreed to disagree.  That was my doing.  It was time for her to move on and be an expert about some other unlucky state or territory's stamps or stickers. 

A word to the wise: do not argue with me about a state stamp.  Particularly if it's a state where I lived for 28 years and you have only visited, even if your dad did own an RV that he took to Big Bend and named "The Roadrunner."  (And if you're going to be such an expert on Texas, "that area by the river... you know, the Rio Grande" is called Big Bend.) I will not back down. I will not be mean or rude, but I will refuse to let you win.  Because you will be wrong.  Very, very wrong.  IT'S. A. MOCKINGBIRD!  After that lady left, my annoyance with every parent saying, "Oh, it's a roadrunner!" when their child proudly showed their giant Texas stamp to them only grew.  Obviously the only response to this was to beat them to the punch.  For the remaining 3 1/2 hours of my 4-hour shift, I would stamp each map and loudly say something to the effect of, "There's a MOCKINGBIRD for you!!"  It worked about 70% of the time after that.  I effectively got a child who was about 4 to correct his parents when they told him it was a roadrunner.  That was satisfying. 

You might be wondering at this point if I actually enjoyed myself or if I was just angry and contradicting patrons the entire time.  I actually had a fantastic time and met a lot of fun people.  I'm pretty sure I'll never see any of them again, but nevertheless, it was fun.  I was exhausted by the time my shift was over, though.  It's funny how just being on your feet and being "on" and bending down to talk to children will just take all your energy right out of you.  It's also un-funny how those same things will make your hamstrings tighten way up later in the day. 

If you're wondering what the big draw of the festival was, it was everything.  There were 105 authors present and all participated in book signings and readings/presentations.  Among them were Toni Morrison, Julianne Moore (yes, the actress; she has 3 children's books under her belt), Amy Chua, Tomie dePaola, Garrison Keilor, and Dave Eggers, along with all kinds of characters from kids' books, e.g., the Magic School Bus: 

I didn't see any of the aforementioned authors, to my dismay, but there were TONS of people at the festival.  This was the line to buy books at the merch tent:

You can't really tell, but there's about 6 lines of roping that stretched most of the width of an incredibly wide tent.  Insanity.

Honestly, I actually didn't know which authors were going to be there until the training session on Wednesday night and even then, I realized I was only familiar with a small handful of them.  However, I was super excited to see the name of Joe Hayes on the list.  Joe Hayes is somewhat of a legend in my family.  I have no idea how my dad found him (and rest assured it was absolutely, 100% my dad that discovered him), but we spent many an hour with Joe Hayes's stories.  If you don't know Joe Hayes (and I'd be shocked if you did), he's a children's author and storyteller.  And he's fantastic.  Mr. Hayes is from New Mexico and tells "bilingual" stories (in quotes because he interjects a line or word here and there in Spanish and immediately interprets it) about the Southwest, Hispanic, and Native American heritages and folklore.  The stories are very clever and some have a fable aspect to them in that they may have a moral to them.  My family saw him live at least twice when I was a kid and we stocked up on cassette tapes at each performance. (Is it a performance if it's a storyteller?  I have no idea.  Just go with it.)  Joe Hayes (along with Garrison Keilor and his A Prairie Home Companion) then became the entertainment of choice on family road trips.  You can imagine my delight when, upon reviewing the list of authors and seeing that both Mr. Hayes AND Mr. Keilor would be attending, I realized the sub-theme of the 2011 NBF was A Road Trip with TeamLC's Family: 1983-1988.  I went back to the festival on Sunday specifically to see Mr. Hayes and I'm so glad I did. 

In an ironic twist for me, he presented at the same time as good ol' Garrison Keilor.  Since he doesn't seem to have quite the national fame that GK holds, the crowd in the children's tent* was much more intimate.  I liked it that way.  Mr. Hayes told 3 stories and each was as entertaining as I remembered them being.  Made me feel 5-ish again.  His voice still sounds exactly the same and he still does the same funny voices.  I kind of geeked out about the whole thing.  At the end of his performance, he invited all the children to come up and shake his hand.  I hung back and waited for the kids to do their thing and then I went up and introduced myself and told him I grew up listening to his stories and that I was excited to see him again, etc.  He was so cute and nice and he hugged me and thanked me for coming.  I kind of wish I'd gotten a picture with him, but I'm okay with a handshake, a hug, 3 stories, and the pics I posted here.

If you want to check out one of his stories, watch him here:

http://youtu.be/ZOJ2588D4oI


Other weekend activities of note: watching the A&M and Baylor games.  We met the FBIs at Rhodeside for the A&M game which could only be summed up as disappointing.  Because Rhodeside hosts the official watch parties for UT, they get all Fox Sports channels and therefore they had the Baylor game showing once the A&M game concluded.  We stayed until halftime and then L decided a change of venue was a necessity because Baylor managed to blow a small portion of their massive lead over Rice, so off we went to Crystal City Sports Pub to meet up with the official Baylor watch party crew.  (In case you're wondering, L's friend date guy was there.  Things are going well and he seems nice, although he did try and trash talk A&M again.**  But I was nice and gave him back his very dirty Snuggie Sutra book.)


Off topic: a game Champagne and Sprinkles and I frequently play is, "Guess what horrible name I just stumbled across."  Basically, we text, email, or gchat each other any time we encounter an unfortunate name.  A name is considered unfortunate when the spelling is intentionally messed up or when the name is just ridiculous, and it can be ridiculous for countless reasons.  Tonight's find, courtesy of the credits of Gossip Girl's season opener: Zuzanna.  People, please don't punish your children by making up a weird name to make yourself appear unique.  You know Zuzanna has lived a lifetime of saying, "Hi, I'm Zuzanna.... Like Susanna, but with a Z."  Don't make your child clarify spelling for life, and if you must, at least keep it simple, like Sarah versus Sara (I still prefer the h - all the best Sarahs in my life have the h).

*Side note: yes, this was in the children's tent and it was attended mostly by families.  I felt slightly creepy about being the one random adult there by herself, because I totes rolled solo to this event. (L had plans to go see Wilco with a friend.) 

**For as much as people want to say all Aggies can focus on is screwing Texas by leaving the Big 12 instead of on the fact that we're having a good season, I have to say I see the same thing from many Baylor grads.  They focus on the fact that A&M lost their game instead of on the fact that Baylor pulled out another win.  CAN'T WE ALL JUST BE EXCITED FOR OUR TEAMS TO BE WINNING AND THAT WE'RE HIGHLY RANKED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS?? 

American Pie

It's been another nice weekend here.  After a week of nothing but exhausting, seemingly endless, torrential rain (seriously - 5 full days of non-stop rain; Texas, I wish I could have bottled it all up and sent it to you), we finally got a break and saw some sunshine on Saturday.

After finishing our morning workouts, Mrs. FBI and I decided to head to Georgetown for a little shopping before heading down to the Newseum, which was allowing free admission all weekend in remembrance of 9/11. 

Neither of us had ever been to the Newseum so we were looking forward to it.  We only made it through 3 1/2 exhibits- none of which was the special 9/11 one- before it closed for the day.  We both really enjoyed the exhibits that we did see, though.  I'd actually planned to go back on Sunday with L, but he was uneasy about the idea of being in DC on 9/11 and after accidentally watching MSNBC's re-broadcast of the real-time footage from 9/11/2001, I decided to scrap those plans and just pay to check it out some other time in the future. 

L spent Saturday at our house watching football and smoking a brisket with The Marine.  I got home a little after 6:00 and got to work creating our dessert for the evening, a hatch chili apple cobbler.  I picked this as a nod to fall, a nod to our amazing country on this weekend of remembrance, and because I recently procured some hatch chilies and was dying to use them.  It was perfect timing that I happened to find the recipe for this dessert. 

Side note: I was shocked to find hatch chilies at my local Harris Teeter a couple of weeks ago.  I really figured that would just be something I'd enjoy on visits to Texas (and New Mexico, since that's where they're grown, but I almost never go there, so really I figured I'd only be eating these in Texas, courtesy of Central Market). 

My lovely hatches, after a few days of ripening:

I found a recipe via Homesick Texan for my aforementioned cobbler.  The end result:

I used 2 green chilies (one really big, the other pretty small) in order to control the spiciness.  The Marine doesn't adore spicy food (he's from Illinois; it can't be helped) and L is sometimes sensitive to spices, so it just seemed logical to start small and know to add more or not for future recipes.  What we ended up with is a yummy pie-type cobbler (it seems more like a pie to me than a cobbler since the crust is on the bottom) that has a subtle, slow, spicy burn at the end of each bite that hits you right at the back of your tongue.  Totally a perfect pairing with the sweetness of the fruit and crust!  Hooray for sweet and savory.  It's especially tasty when paired with salted caramel ice cream, which we happened to find at Safeway (note to Nolly and Neredith: this ice cream is not nearly as good as the salted caramel ice cream Nolly and I had for dessert at August, but did we really expect it to be?  It's totally different, but still good).  If you're looking for it, it's the house label.  So in Texas, I guess it might be Randall's or Tom Thumb brands but I can't remember if they change they labels there to match the store names.  ANYWAY, it was really good!  It takes a little time to roast the chilies and peel and dice everything, but once you do that, it's super quick to put together.  If you have access to hatches, I highly recommend giving this a shot.  It's perfect for a fall dessert.

I'm All Shook Up

FYI- we're all safe and sound here after yesterday's earthquake drama.  In case you didn't hear, we had an earthquake on the East Coast yesterday.  Honestly, it was not that big of a deal.  I was actually excited about it because I'd always wondered what an earthquake felt like.  If you have also wondered this, the answer is that a 5.8 one feels like a lot of fast shake/vibrating.  I was in my office, which is in the basement of my building, and honestly we thought people in the suite above ours were just moving a lot of furniture.  Except when people are moving furniture, it usually doesn't last more than about 5 seconds (you hear the thud of them dropping the furniture or running into a wall and that's it).  This lasted a good deal longer.  I'm not sure how long, but long enough for discussion about what was happening while it was happening.  The weirdest part was that it just kept going but kept getting fainter and fainter.  Lucky for me, my boss is from Cali and immediately knew what to do (which is NOT run outside the building, which is what most people did, but to hide under your desk - my first instinct - or in a doorway; thanks elementary school earthquake drills!).  Then there was a lot of excitement about how we'd just had an earthquake and apparently the whole world up here went home early except the people on my team (there are deadlines to be met, people!).  That made for a truly lovely commute home- I think I made it in 13 minutes because I had the roads pretty much to myself!  Of course my mom was very alarmed; she was asking questions that made our earthquake sound like Haiti, and Haiti it was most decidedly not. 

Life is back to normal today for me and L.  We haven't felt any of the tremors and not a thing was out of place in our house (that we noticed... we recently cat-sat for Ali again so we are still occasionally finding things out of place because of her).  I can't decide if I want aftershocks to hit or not.  On one hand, yes! Because I want to be able to say, "Oh, yes, this is an earthquake," with certainty when it happens instead of like yesterday.  On the other hand, I'm so over it.  It's all over TV, it shut down a lot of Government offices and all  DC schools, and it did damage to some buildings, the capitol, the Washington monument, and the National Cathedral (just in case you haven't been watching the news).  Annoying and sad, yes?  Yes.  It also required us to cancel a JL meeting and move it to tomorrow night, which is EXTRA annoying (too much traffic in DC because the Metro was running super slow to check for problems and cars couldn't come and go because there was uncertainty about the bridges... awesome). 

Unrelated: another team at work catered lunch for my team today and they ordered fancy desserts for us in the form of a variety of mini pies.  I'm a lover of personal-sized anything, so of course I had to take a pic.  Here's my own little lemon meringue pie:

Still a bit much for one person, but cuteness abounded anyway.  This definitely makes me want to try making tiny pies now.

Here in My Car...

On this snow day, I was reminded of three things: 1) how lucky I am to have such a good teammate in life (a.k.a., L), 2) how white I am, and 3) how horrible L is at working from home.  I mean he was not meant for a job that requires him to do that daily.

If you haven't heard, DC got hit by a snowstorm yesterday afternoon, right around the time rush hour started.  I'd planned to leave work at 3:00, but the weather looked like it might hold out a bit longer so I opted to stay for my daily 4:00 conference call with a west-coast co-worker.  That was a mistake.  L called around 3:40 to say he was thinking about leaving around 4:00, and after some debate, we decided he'd come pick me up on his way home and we'd ride back to the house together, and that he'd leave his office immediately instead of waiting 15 minutes.  An hour later, he called to tell me he'd made it to the street my office is on to let me know he was getting close, so I high-tailed it to the lobby and ended up waiting about 2 hours for him to go roughly 3 blocks to get to my building.  While I waited, I composed the following email on my phone and sent it to several friends, hoping that they'd respond and keep me entertained.

Subject: Entertain me, por favor

So, I'm chilling in the lobby of my office building, waiting on L to get here to pick me up. It's snowing ridiculously hard outside and I'm the fool who opted to wait til the snow started to even think about going home... Anyway, my office looks out on one of the drives leading into 2 different garages (jealous of such an exotic view???) and the traffic to just get out of the garages is INSANE. So I decided to carpool home w/ L b/c who wants to drive in this? Not me. The security guard hanging out w/ me right now told me he's been monitoring the traffic of the garage where my car is parked and people haven't moved in an hour. I'm going to say he might be exaggerating a little, but then L called me at 4:45 my time to tell me he was on my street a few blocks away and he's still not here. I'm definitely bundled up and ready to go as soon as he calls to tell me he's here though. For your mental picture, I'm wearing my grey pin stripe suit (the one that matches L's, and luckily I opted for pants today or the rest of my ensemble would look extra attractive), a teal top that you currently can't see, my suit jacket (also hidden right now), my green pea coat, gray knit scarf and hat, blue and white striped knit gloves, and my tan snow boots, which means I'm carrying my tall black boots around. I also have my purse, an over flowing black and white purse-style lunch box, and a book. All I can say is that I'm a hobo-chic color explosion.

So reply back and tell me what's going on this week! I got nothin' but time. Or feel free to call if you're done w/ work. I'll be around!!

Luckily AMVS and SRGR both came to the rescue with phone calls and The Roommate and H pulled through with emails back, so that helped immensely.  My sister also called during our plight home, so that also helped pass our time while we were stuck in one spot for a long stretch.  Anyway, I ran out to L's truck around 6:15-ish and we continued to inch forward on my office's street for about an hour, then the same thing with the street after that, etc., etc.  We got to the house around 10:45 (so, roughly 4 1/2 hours for me and 7 for L... and if you're looking for distance, my office is about 7 miles from our house), which pales in comparison to several of my co-workers who had 9+ hour drives home and were in their cars by themselves.  That's the key to our sanities- we were together.  It wasn't scary being in the traffic because no one was moving, but when you did move, it was super slow.  I drove about 95% of the way home so that L could hop out and push us when we got stuck and help other people around us when they got stuck.  He ended up wearing my snow boots because he only had his dress shoes with him and our feet are almost the same size, plus the boots are a little roomy on me.  Also, they are very gender-neutral, so it's not like anyone could tell they were women's shoes, but even if they could have, who would've cared??  This is the one pictuer I got the whole night because I didn't have my camera with me and L refused to take pictures with my phone while I was driving, and I wasn't about to start snapping away while I was behind the wheel of his truck.

That was our view for about an hour and a half, except more cars came along and packed in the empty lanes to our right.  Anyway, once we got home, we had to park the truck in front of a random neighbor's house at the end of the street because the truck couldn't make it up the gentle hill that is our street.  The street hadn't been plowed and there was just too much snow on the ground to get any traction.  That meant hiking it through the snow up to the house in my high-heeled boots- not something I'd recommend!  Also, if you go out in the snow, wear more than just suit pants.  Not the warmest.  Then, just as we were drifting off to sleep around 12:45, the power went out.  SO, obviously a snow day was in order after all that!

Luckily, the power came back around 8:45 this morning and it's been smooth sailing ever since.  L slept in til noon- exhausted from running through snowy streets and pushing cars around all night, as well as building a snow dam around the truck since our parking job at the end of the night was not the best- and then started working from home.  Which brings us to a funny story.  That man is great and is great at many things, but focusing on work while at home is just not one of them.  A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon, he decided to run to Target for something specific, although I don't remember what it was now, so obviously it was very important.  I asked him to pick me up some yoga pants that were on sale (success!) and he also brought me home a hibiscus bulb and kit (cute and random and thoughtful because he knows I love flowers).  Anyway, I thought that was about it.  He called me the next day and told me he was going to go home from work early so that he could do some voice recordings for a work project (he has to do this from time to time and our house has better acoustics than his office).  I came home to find him set up at the dining room table, laptop open, microphone hooked up, but instead of working, he was watching episodes of some show called The League.  Apparently we own season one of this show now, which is purely the product of The Gamblor incessantly raving about this show.  L had never watched a full episode (he didn't like the parts he'd seen), so obviously instead of using Netflix to watch the show and determine if he liked it, we needed to become the proud owners of said show.  Today was pretty similar, only he kept one eye on whatever was on HBO.  He also stopped to come help me shovel out spaces for us to park our cars, although I'm proud to say I did about 90% of the clearing.  Go me!  That never would have happened last year.  It was hard, and it wasn't fun, but it was my workout for the day, so in that regard, I enjoyed it.  My arms and upper back will be ripped in no time.  Also I'm pretty sure my face is sunburned, which is weird, because the sun wasn't out, but I guess it's just like when you go snow skiing. 

I also realized today that my skin is currently pretty darn close to the color of the snow outside.  I definitely Tan Toweled it up after my post-snow shoveling shower this afternoon, so hopefully that will help give me some much-needed color. 

I'm looking forward to going back in to work in the morning.  I don't love that I have a day of work before my weekend can really start, but I'm glad the worst of the snow is over and I'm ready to feel productive again.  But now, it's time for a low-key Date Night In so that we can gear up for work (and more snow) tomorrow morning!  Hope everyone is having a good week and staying warm!

Cold As You

The cold weather arrived in full force on November 1.  My windshield has looked like this every morning:

That means the ice scraper has already been pulled out for the season.  Booooooooooo.  Gonna be a long winter, folks!! 

By the way, the weird spot at the bottom of my windshield is from the defroster being on.

Throw Your Arms Around Me

Long ago I realized that, much to my own dismay and annoyance, I am a magnet for people who desperately need friends.  Seriously, it's inevitable.  I'm in a crowd of people... whoever is having the hardest time fitting in will immediately hone in on whatever frequency I emit that says, Friend to all.  Don't get me wrong- it's nice to be liked and all that.  But it just. never. fails.  My friends have laughed at me for this reason countless times.  I will admit that it has resulted in some long-term friendships on a few occasions, but I had to fight to get beyond the qualities of these individuals that I initially found so irksome.

After Saturday, I can now say that apparently I'm giving off more vibes than just my standard Friend to all.  I had to get up early and go to a Junior League meeting from 8-12 on Saturday (and who doesn't just LOVE the Saturday morning 6:35 wake up alarm that came with it?) and I took the Metro in.  Because I am brilliant, I plotted my trains online the night before and knew I'd take the orange line in and have 3 minutes to switch and get on the red line at 7:47.  Everything was running on schedule.  I was on my game.  And then, as I stood looking at the headlights of the approaching train way down the track and saw the blinking warning lights on the grounding, a homeless woman approached.  At first she just asked what time it was, and my aforementioned brilliance was given a moment in the spotlight as I announced that the train that was coming was on time for its scheduled 7:47 arrival.  And then... she asked for a hug.  I literally had no idea what to do.  I'm not comfortable hugging people I don't know.  I don't even always want to shake their hands.  Plus, I live in a world where I've been taught to be incredibly cautious.  Don't leave your purse unzipped in crowded places.  Don't talk to strangers (obviously I'd already ignored that rule).  Don't take candy or food from strangers.  Don't get in cars with people you don't know.  The list goes on and on.  These are rules all kids are taught from early ages, but as an attractive female (yeah, I said it- I'm attractive.  I have a healthy self-image), society tells me I should be more cautious.  So back to the story.  Homeless lady asks for a hug.  Do I do the nice thing and give her a hug?  Do I cringe and recoil and say, "No, thanks!" and run?  I weighed my options at lightening speed and decided to go in for the hug and keep it brief.  I figured that, being homeless and all, it probably has been a long time since anyone offered her a hug.  Hugs are good for you.  And the train was coming so I knew I could cut it short by getting on the train.  So I kept my purse super close to my body (because of course I immediately wondered if she'd try and slip something out of it mid-hug) gave her a 1-armed hug, she put her head on my shoulder, and then I pulled away and jumped on the train. 

It felt like candid camera or some kind of weird social experiment.  What will the girl in the nice if not somewhat weird but nice outfit (another story for later) do if she's approached by a homeless person??  I guess I passed the test. 

I'm still wondering what made her pick me out of the crowd of people on the platform.  I can only assume I now have an additional sign that indicates I'll give free hugs. 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

L and I had quite the little weekend!  I finally decided to go see the doctor on Saturday morning to see if there was a reason why I've had headaches all week and why my teeth hurt.  I was pretty sure it was a sinus infection, and I was right.  Rest assured that I'm on on antibiotics and Mucinex (how gross is that name?) and I am now the proud owner of a nettie pot, but I've been too afraid to use it so far.  I'm thinking tomorrow morning may be the right time.

After a serious nap, we headed up to the Merriweather Post Pavillion to see MGMT perform.    It was a good show, but I'll behonest, I'm a fan of the big hits.  The rest of it doesn't have the same energy.  I'd hoped it might have more at a live show, but it just didn't.  But we still had a good time.  Some of the good: our seats were close and we were on the far side, so we caught a nice breeze the whole time.  Also I can't remember the last time I saw an outdoor show when it was only about 80 degrees outside.  So nice!  Some of the bad: we were definitely some of the oldest people there.  Between the opening bands and MGMT, you could text messages to some number and they would get displayed on the screens around the venue.  Basically, this was the 2010 version of an overpass.  All of the messages were in text lingo and I swear to you, all of them were declarations of love for different people in that I can only assume were also in the audience, presumably next to the person who sent the messages.  This actually prompted a discussion between me and L of proper grammar (L was wrong about something and refused to admit it).  Anyway, the best text message of the night on the screen appeared about 10 minutes before MGMT took the stage.  What did it say?  "Good luck on the SATs, kids!"  So great.  I'm sure it went right over the heads of many, but it was funny to the non-teenagers.

And finally, today we went to a Nationals game, compliments of L's work.  We were late getting there because of the Metro but we got there in time to see the presidents race around the field.

Once again, Teddy lost (he's never won a race. Ever.  It's a thing now).  But it's always hilarious to see them run.  Huge heads on little legs are just funny.  Here's a shot of Teddy up close:

The seats were great, we saw the Nats score all of their runsand win the game, and we got to see Stephen Strasburg pitch (it's a big deal here). 

I tried a famous Ben's Chili Bowl half-smoke (without the onions):

And this guy was awesome at revving upthe crowd (you can't tell, but he's dancing):

MOST importantly, it didn't rain on us, as predicted by every meteorologist in the area.

Hooray for a good weekend!    What did YOU do??

Oh, I love a rainy night

Wow, what a day it's been.  It started raining last night around 10 and it rained hard.  I love sleeping in hard rain, so needless to say, I promptly fell asleep on the couch while watching ABC Family's second night of their 4-day Harry Potter weekend.  Yes, that means you can still catch it for the rest of the day today AND tomorrow if you've missed it so far.  Try to contain yourself. 

Obviously that means I woke up completely rested this morning around 8:45.  L was still sleeping soundly, so I decided to take my book and finish it from one of my favorite spots: the armchair in our study.  Down the hall I trekked, climbed into the chair, covered myself up with the blanket, and tried to turn on the TV for a little background noise (I'm that girl who needs background noise to read).  The remote wouldn't turn on the TV, so I looked at the cable box and of course it had some kind of weird error message.  "No worries," I thought, figuring the cable got knocked out with the storm and I simply turned on the DVD player.  New Moon happened to be in there, so you know, a little eye candy in case the book got boring in the last 30 pages.  I opened my book and moments later, I heard a weird noise.  Almost like a drop of water hitting hard plastic.  I looked up and sure enough, a drop of water was rolling down Edward Cullen's face.  And not in the movie.  This was on the TV.  My focus shifted up and saw that apparently we have a leak in our roof that happened to be causing water to drip directly down on to the TV and the cable box it sits on.  SUPER.  I jumped up to get paper towels to wipe up the water (luckily it looked like the leak hadn't been going for too long) and move the TV and cable box to a dry area.  Then I took off to find some kind of make-shift buckets.  Several towels, an ice bucket, a big vase, and two jug coolers did the trick.  The clean-up actually took a lot longer than you'd think because I thought it was just one spot dripping and then I kept finding more and more (water is basically coming in where the crown molding meets the top of some built-in bookshelves and as the water came in, it either rolled straight down or off to either side and then down the sides of the bookcase- whatever, use your imagination) and therefore having to get more towels and continually find more containers to collect the accumulating water. 

After that, I took a picture with my camera of everything so we could show our landlord what was going on and went to upload it to my computer.  I opened it up and saw the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.  This is sort of a recurring thing with my computer; it loves to go through phases where it won't start up and it needs to run diagnostics for like an hour to reset itself and then it works just fine for a couple of weeks before needing to rinse and repeat.  After like 4 rounds of this, it usually simmers down for a few months before the cycle starts again.  So far it's run diagnostics three times today, all with no avail.  I'm sure it didn't help that while it was running them the first time, I didn't realize the power cord had come unplugged and that it was just running on the battery, which wasn't fully charged, so of course it shut down mid-run. 

During all of this, I also decided to try and reset the cable box to no avail.  Just kept getting weird error messages. Since I obviously couldn't upload the pictures from my camera to my computer, I decided to take pictures with my phone.  That worked as far as sending them to our landlord, but I'm on L's desktop computer right now and even though I downloaded the pics from my email, his stupid computer won't let me upload them for Show and Tell for you.  Grrr. 

All of this was before I'd been awake for an hour.  Fun way to start a Saturday, no?  Also fun to explain all of that to your husband literally as soon as he opens his eyes.  At least the leak was under control.  He'll work on my computer at some point over the weekend.  I'm just hoping I didn't potentially lose like 6 years' worth of pictures... fingers crossed that I can get it to work long enough to recover them and save them to a back-up disc or jump drive!  I've already been lucky once this week and gotten a camera to come back from the dead, so here's hoping I can repeat it with my computer, too.

The good news of the day:  the rain has stopped and so has the leak has.  L just got up in the attic to see if he could spot where the leak in the roof was and everything is totally dry.  No idea what's going on there.  L and I had a late breakfast and ran a couple of errands and left the cable box unplugged so it could dry out for a while.  Good news: the cable box is working again, so everyone can relax knowing that I can watch Harry Potter's adventures all weekend from my favorite chair. 

On a side note, L was introduced to Sur La Table during our errand-running and is now a big fan, but that's another story.

To market, to market to buy a fresh pig...

One of my favorite things so far about D.C. is the Eastern Market.  Honestly there's nothing that's like OHMYGOSHYOUHAVETOSEETHIS! about it, but I just really like it.  For you non-D.C.ers, it's basically a farmer's market with one building that has permanent vendor booths in it (think refridgerated cases) and then on the weekends, lots of other vendors come and set up booths outside in tents.  The bonus is that there are also non-food vendors that have lots of fun stuff!  I made a quick visit last weekend and this morning L and I went together because he had never been.  Plus, on Saturday mornings, the lunch counter there has a good breakfast, so we were able to eat first and then shop.

I took some pics of the permanent counters inside.  Check it out: they have fresh, handmade pasta. 

If you look closely, you'll see some dark-colored ravioli on the bottom row in the picture above.  That's a dessert ravioli that is made of chocolate and filled with some kind of cream.  I have no idea how you cook it, either, but it was interesting!

And look at all these meats:

Some of the pretty flowers:

There was lots of seafood that I didn't get to take a picture of.  At some point I want to try some of the meat counters and pasta.  I also want to get some mussels and, if we can go back again while it's in season, some soft shell crab.  Never tried making either of the latter but it seems like they'd be fun to try.  And delicious.  We ended up coming home with peaches, blackberries, cherries, a cantaloupe, fresh garlic, potatoes, and 2 of the biggest carrots I've ever seen.  The best part of all is that all of the produce we bought is organic and fresh-picked.  Everything tastes that way it's supposed to taste.  I wish food from the grocery store tasted this good.

Completely unrelated: if you are like me and SRG and you don't love reading blogs in Google Reader, you can now sign up to get my posts emailed directly to you via the feedburner I installed this week.  If this is of interest to you, enter your email address into the "Become a Regular" field on the top right side.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!!

Relax

I love weekends that start with finding a new, fun place for dinner and drinks, then L unexpectedly being able to come home, then move into a lazy, gorgeous Saturday, and that end with exciting news about a dear friend getting engaged.  There's nothing better than taking it easy and getting to relax on pretty days in the spring.

Yes, Friday started with a killer wineover, but around 4:00 I decided I'd had enough.  After showering, doing make up and hair, putting on a sundress, and ordering a pizza (grease was a must), I was feeling enough like my normal self (albeit dehydrated) to make it to my JL Transfer happy hour at lovely venue called Local 16.  I opted to stick to water (and drank LOTS of it) but was glad to be there.  The bar was great- they have an awesome rooftop terrace and the weather was AMAZING.  I can't wait to take L and out of town friends!  Such a fun area.

And speaking of L, he got to come home this weekend.  Originally he was scheduled to stay in NYC and work over the weekend, but to my delight, at the last minute they decided to give him a weekend pass back to DC and I picked him up from the train station around 11.  Saturday was a repeat of Friday's gorgeous weather with a very heavy dose of wind thrown in.  We slept in a little and then decided to head out to the National Cathedral's Flower Mart.  Apparently this is an annual event, and I thought it was going to be all flower vendors.  It was actually much more like an open-air bazaar (for you Austinites, it's similar to the Pecan Street Festival) with a lot of vendors selling all kinds of things, performers, and foot carts/stands.  I have no idea how they didn't all blow away because it at the top of that hill, it was freakin' windy!  We didn't buy too much- just a print to hang in our house and some soup mix, but we did see something that I am ABSOLUTELY buying for L if we make it to the Kentucky Derby or Gold Cup next year.

Yes, those are needlepoint-covered flasks (and wallets, but let's focus on the former for the moment).  I didn't realize til right now that it's hard to tell that they are needlepoint, but take my word for it.  Does it get any than that?  I think not, especially if you opt to have one custom-made with initials instead of just going the alma mater route.  If you're wondering where to order these fun flasks, go here.  Smathers & Branson will satiate all of your needlepoint desires.

Finally, congratulations to SRG over at Gluten Girl in Austin on getting engaged!  So exciting!!  Can't wait to share in your excitement in the coming months as you plan your wedding.  Woo hoo!!  I think every weekend should end with such great news.  :)

Hanginaround

I keep neglecting to welcome the 2 new followers.  So, without further adieu, WELCOME!  I have no idea how you stumbled across this little corner o' the web, but I hope I live up to your expectations.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks.  L has been traveling a LOT- both for work and pleasure, although he finally had last week off and we had one whole glorious week of cooking dinner together and what not.  But that's boring.  While he was doing his regular spring gambling trip with his friends, I had a weekend on my own that involved a lot of mundane stuff.  However, I did spot this gentleman:

It was so random.  I have no idea if that's an advertisement for homosexuality or religion or what because, somewhat sadly, I missed the front of his shirt.  The shiny, gold, Old English writing in the back caught my eye because from the side, he just DID NOT look the type to be wearing a shirt with any sort of message on it, much less a message like this in that type of writing.

And of course, Virginians still love lame custom license plates:

I'm not certain, but I feel like that's probably not really Obama's other car.  But if that's the case, let's stop to consider how that's the SECOND person to put Obama's name on their license plate.  Also, I see this car somewhat frequently, and never by my house.

This Tri Delt is a dancing queen and proud of it.

Sorry it's a little blurry.  They're bad girls.

I'm hopeful that this was part of the Lexus "December to Remember" campaign they run every year and that it came with a giant bow on top.

I waited around hoping that Sarah would come out so that maybe she and I could go on a friend date and befriend each other, but after 30 seconds, I realized how creepy that is and that I had better things to do.

Build Me Up, Buttercup

So, my daffodils did bloom, after all! 

And a view of the house with the daffies on both sides:

Hooray for plants/ fleurs that can survive a lot of freezing weather.

And then a hero comes along

Scenes from a marriage:

3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, at a stoplight.  As the scene opens, I am in the driver's seat, staring intently at SUV in front of where my car is in the lane to my right. 

L: "What are you staring at?"

Me: "Does that license plate say, 'Herpes live forever'?"

L pauses to look.

L: "Try, 'Heroes live forever.'"

Silence.

Me: "Well, either way it's still true."

Scene.

This is the sample version of the same kind of plate (I didn't take a pic b/c I was driving):

And to be fair, the car in question had a frame around the plate that prevented you from seeing the whole row of text. 

I still maintain my argument.  Once you've got the herp, you've got it for life.

Weekend Wars

This past weekend was one of those great weekends where nothing really happens to make it great, but it's great because you get a lot of stuff accomplished and it actually is relaxing.  Amongst other things, we attempted to go update drivers' licenses (I need to get a new one, L needs to update his address... which he can't do online for some reason), the lawn was mowed, I updated my closet by switching out all my winter and summer clothes in my closet and building a shoe rack for myself, and I finally finished a project that has been in the making since the Olympics.  I also made L go with me to a Junior League picnic for all of the transfers.  Back story: Mom gave me the CUTEST all-weather blanket, bag, and matching pillow about 2 years ago. 

 It's really for the beach (hence the pillow) but the only beach I've visited since she gave me the fun set was Hawaii (and it was packed up on the moving van), I decided that it would work for picnicking.  L has been less excited about the idea of a picnic than I have been since I first threw the idea out to him.  (This was not a surprise, as he is a man.)  We've used the blanket to watch fireworks from the Lincoln Memorial on his first 4th of July up here and yesterday we broke it out again for a picnic for the Junior League Transfers.  Hooray for cuteness!

The picnic itself was a giant CF.  Not enough planning.  The instructions literally said, "Look for the group on the grounds of the Washington Monument."  Well, if you've ever been, it's actually a REALLY big area with a hill in the middle (which is where the monument sits) so you can't see from one side to the other.  Also, there are always tourists everywhere, so it's not like there's going to just be an empty field with ONE small group standing around.  Also, it's important to note that since all of us are transfers, none of us know each other or who to look for.  Extra bonus for this weekend: it's the end of the Cherry Blossom Festival, thus PEOPLE WERE EVERYWHERE.  Starting to see the flaws in this plan??  The point of the picnic was to view the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin but sadly, the trees peaked about 2 weeks ago and consequently there weren't any yesterday. 

This resulted in Picnic 1.0 starting with 2 other couples (one of whom I already knew; the other couple saw us spread out our blankets and asked if we were with JL because they were lost, too) before we were "found" by the one Active who was heading the event up, so we moved over to Picnic 2.0 where they were.  Picnic 2.0 was in front of this amphitheater/stage thing where there were some performances going on.  Some visual aids:

We have no idea what was going on.  The preceeding groups had been an Irish children's dancing group (think Lord of the Dance) and some Japanese (we think??) children dancing with drums.  Kind of like the opening ceremonies to the '08 Olympics, but about 1/200 of the people and waaaaaaaaay less cool.  We're assuming this is the Japanese version of a Chinese dragon.  It bounced around the stage and then rolled over.

And that was that.  The final verdict on the picnic experience was that we were both glad to have gone- the weather was fantastic and it was so nice to see friends and make new ones- but we both agreed that it absolutely needed better planning.  Sunscreen would also probably be a smart add-on for next time.  Who knows- maybe we'll have more picnic adventures sometime soon!

Bug a Boo

WHAT IS THAT BUG???  These things keep finding ME (never L) and they FREAK. ME. OUT.  Another shot:

This one makes it look HUGE, and it's really not.  It's probably a little smaller than a quarter.  In real life it sort of resembles a cross between a leaf and a stink bug.

Clearest shot of the day with my dying-by-the-day camera.  The scary part about these bugs is that they jump without warning AND FLY.  I mean look at those back legs.  They pack the power. 

And in case you were wondering, I didn't kill it.  I have a problem with killing, even if it's just a bug.  Try as I might, I just can't squish unless it's a mosquito.  (My constant internal argument is that it's not doing anything to me besides scaring me or grossing me out, neither of which is truly life-threatening.  What can I say?  I'm a lover, not a killer.)  In this case, I pulled a Scarlet O'Hara and decided to think about it another day and simply left the window open and waited for it to hop on the screen.  Then I closed the window and lowered the shade.  Roughly 36 hours later, I have yet to raise the shade to find out if it figured out a way OUT or if it is still caught in the purgatory that is the space between the glass of the window and the screen.  HA HA, SUCKER!

Also, bugs may or may not have been an influencing factor in my decision to get married.  This also just reminded me of another classic "me" bug story, to be told another time.

Hometown Glory

So, last night L and I went to a Stars/Capitals game, and we had a lot of fun!  L is a huge hockey fan and I enjoy live sporting events, so when an opporunity arose a few months ago to score some tickets to a Caps game, I jumped at the chance to see my new hometown team play my real hometown team.  The game was unexpectedly GREAT- despite our top deck seats, we were EXACTLY on center ice and could see all the action really well.  Plus, the Capitals are REALLY good (note the shots on goal) and the Stars have been decent but not great (just ignore their shots on goal).  We got there late in the first period and the score was 1-0, Caps.  The Stars came back to take the lead, the Caps tied it, and it went into overtime and resulted with another tie, so then it went into Sudden Death OT.  Stars pulled out a W, which was awesome!  Woo hoo!!  I love you, Mike Modano (even though you didn't play very much last night...)!

In an effort to support the Stars, I sported a black sweater, green earrings, and my black cowboy boots.  I REALLY wish I'd had time to play a joke on L and paint a giant, black star on my face or something, but I also don't think I would've had the nerve to ride the Metro like that and I definitely would have been scared leaving the game (Caps fans were not pleased with the loss).  But it would have made him pee in his pants a little if he'd come home from work and found me waiting like that.

Also of interest: we had a real life astronaut in the crowd across from us.

I bet he's one that has been to the moon.  I wonder how he managed to steal that suit, though.  Not very sneaky to wear it to a game that was broadcast nationally.

This guy was also sitting in our section.  I think he forgot that the Wizards are the basketball team:

It's hard to tell, but the guy just to the right of the center of the pic is in a cape, and he is waving two wands that light up.  I have no idea why.  He was very, very serious about it.

Finally, during the break between the second and third periods, we took a lap around the Verizon Center.  I needed to use the restroom, and imagine my surprise when I saw the sign indicating that this is where women go to throw up:

Okay, upon closer inspection, it's a sign for restrooms and water fountains, but I swear to you, I really thought it was someone barfing into a small trash can when I first glanced at it.